Pro-Israel advocacy has been dealt a severe body-blow – by Israel. The reason is that Israeli authorities themselves do not have pride in Israel as a Jewish nation, albeit one with many recognized minorities.
JPost reports (081014 “Officials to discuss Acre Arabs’ fate”) that in the wake of the Arab-instigated race riots in Akko on Yom Kippur, the city’s Arab residents are slated to receive compensation for damaged property, with the city footing the bill for renovation of their apartments.
The Arab race riots resulted in dozens of Jewish-owned shops and cars being smashed. It’s what used to be called a pogrom, back in the days when words meant something and truth was valued higher than political correctness.
Akko City Hall advertises no plans to compensate Jewish residents from public coffers. The very concept of “selection” in the world’s only Jewish nation suggests that Israel has not learned from history. It is unrealistic to expect the international community to internalise a lesson that Israel itself does not appear to have learned. Israel’s legitimacy – and that of the international hasbara community – has been severely damaged by officials who teach that no action, no matter how shocking, will ever be punished if the perpetrator is an Arab and the victim merely a Jew.
It is shocking that “Allah u Akhbar” should be hurled in the face of Jews on Yom Kippur in the world’s only Jewish state. It underscores the latent racism that often bubbles under the surface in the Arab mindset.
What is even more shocking is that no effort is spared to protect the perpetrators, while leaving the Jewish victims to fend for themselves. In the world’s only Jewish state.
Israeli self-effacement is severely hampering pro-Israel advocacy abroad.